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Victim knew her assailant

Michael Inman

A man who climbed into bed with a woman and sexually assaulted her after a night out celebrating his birthday has a ''predilection to anti-social behaviour'', a court was told.

Daniel Lewis Buda-Kaa already had a string of burglary convictions and had been paroled only two days before he climbed into the bed of the half-asleep woman at 5.45am in May 2011, touched her indecently and sexually assaulted her.

In July, an ACT Supreme Court jury found Buda-Kaa guilty of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of committing acts of indecency without consent.

At a sentencing hearing on Friday, the Crown urged Justice John Burns to sentence the 23-year-old to a period of imprisonment.

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The Crown said the assault was a ''gross breach of trust'' as the woman was a family friend.

But the defence said Buda-Kaa, a paranoid schizophrenic, should not be jailed as imprisonment had affected his well-being.

Buda-Kaa's legal team argued that their client had suffered auditory hallucinations and a catatonic state while in custody.

During the trial the court heard that the half-asleep victim had turned over in bed when Buda-Kaa came into her bedroom because she thought her young son, who sometimes crawled into bed with her, had entered the room.

She only recognised Buda-Kaa when he spoke to her but did not scream or jump out of bed because she feared for her two children who were also asleep in the house.

The jury heard the woman tried to stay calm and keep Buda-Kaa away from her.

She managed to get out of bed and phoned her brother, who contacted police.

The Hughes man had fallen asleep by the time police had arrived.

The Crown on Friday read a victim impact statement that said the woman had suffered mental and physical illness since the assault.

The court heard the victim's children had also suffered stress-related illnesses and the family had moved house as a result of the attack.